Updated 16:00BST:

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Thursday 31 July: for news on the fire that shut the A9 at Narbonne on 30 July, see here (in brief – road now re-opened)!

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NEWS: heavy traffic earlier today for the first big holiday getaway, especially after a huge tanker fire restricts the main route between France and Spain. Settled down from lunchtime onwards.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: a quiet day, max 15mins at 12:00.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: P&O Dover-Calais, some sailings delayed 30mins.

Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Santander ‘economie’ sailing cancelled today and tomorrow. Rejig on Portsmouth/Plymouth-Santander route 13-16 July, tech issue.

WEATHER ALERT: Red alert heavy rain south east Poland. Amber alert storm/heavy rain Germany, Austria, Poland.

WEATHER: fair Mediterranean. Showers and rain to North but warm.

MAJOR ROAD WORKS: A50 at Eindhoven closed northbound 11-19 July, southbound 19-28 July. Currently 40min delay northbound.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A7 northbound from Hannover, incident at Schwarmstedt, delay down to 50mins. A31 northbound to Emstunnel at Leer, delay northbound down to 25mins.

A2 northbound to Gotthard Tunnel, queue down to 2km, 25mins.

Earlier: A7 southbound Lyon-Avignon, heavy traffic total delay down to 15mins. A11 southbound to Angers, earlier accident, delay from Durtal down to 10mins. A10 southbound to Bordeaux, earlier accident at Saintes, delay down to 10mins. A61 eastbound Carcassone-Narbonne, earlier accident at Lezignan delay down to 15mins. A9 southbound Beziers-Narbonne direction Spain, accident (see below) delay down to 15mins. Now no delay A3 Wurzburg>Regensburg, A8 eastbound to Linz, A3 eastbound Frankfurt-Wurzburg, A5 northbound from Basel,

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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A tanker carrying 36,000 litres of diesel caught fire on the A9 at Agde in the South of France yesterday afternoon, the main route to and from Spain, shutting the road in both directions. It reopened fully northbound late in the evening and finally two lanes southbound on Saturday morning after being repaved overnight. Along with heavy holiday traffic long delays are to be expected today southbound. Photo @VINCIAutoroutes. UPDATE: actually delays started to reduce by midday, clearly due to drivers diverting via Toulouse-Carcassone-Narbonne where delays reached 2h30 at 12:00 before both tailed off early afternoon.

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NEWS: Police will be out in force on French roads this weekend. A new racing circuit in Belgium throws open its doors for the first time.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: hovering between 15-30mins most of the day.

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FRANCE: 15,000 SPEED COPS ON THE ROADS

Increased police presence for the two most deadly months.

When is it raining in France? Perennial confusion surrounds the point at which drivers must slow down, as shown in the sign above. As @BenSamuelson says, ‘When it’s just spotting with rain, it’d seem daft to lose 20 km/h unnecessarily.’ The legislation is not clear. It merely notes that, ‘In case of rain or other precipitation, the maximum speed is lowered to 110kmh.’ Much is left to the judgement of the police officer. It’s certainly raining when windscreen wipers are used continuously but what about intermittent wipers? We say if the road is already wet then slow down. If the road is dry, then… Either way, the gains and losses can be significant.

Road deaths rose again in France in June compared to the same month last year but, again, not by as much as feared.

Fatalities increased by 3.8% last month as against a cut of 10.4% in June 2013 when new unmarked camera cars had initially led to large drops in the number of serious accidents. The effect however quickly wore off.

Overall, the first half of 2014 saw the number of fatal accidents grow by 7.9% compared to the same period in 2013 following rises of 28% in March, 8% in April and 15% in May.

According to Securite Routiere, forty percent of the increase in road deaths are cyclists and pedestrians.

Ahead of the 14 July Bastille Day holiday weekend, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warns drivers that nearly 15,000 gendarmes and police officers will be on the roads though he didn’t say how many are present normally.

July and August normally account for 20% of fatal traffic accidents in France. Traffic levels this weekend are expected to be raised though not at their worst.

Traffic police took the opportunity in a Sunday Times article last month to deny they specifically target UK registered cars though the received wisdom says 50% of those committing speeding offences in France in the summer are from abroad.

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A new racing circuit in Belgium sees its first competitive event this weekend. The Jules Tacheny Circuit in Mettet, a few miles south east of Charleroi, hosts the third round of this year’s FIA European Rallycross Championship, Friday to Sunday. The 1030m track is one third gravel and the rest asphalt. Local former WRC driver Francois Duval makes a guest appearance alongside series regulars WRC champ Petter Solberg and F1 champ Jacques Villeneuve. UPDATE: 25,000 spectators watched the racing, ultimately won by up and coming 23-year old Finn VW driver Topi Heikkinen. Petter Solberg retired, but still leads the championship, while Jacques Villeneuve crashed out. Duval impressed with his pace but finished outside the top twelve.

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NEWS: A strike could mean delays at all UK Passport Controls today (see more here – not causing any problems at Dover, Calais or Dunkerque so far).

Also, drivers are preparing for the first big European summer getaway with heavy traffic in Switzerland, Austria and – particularly – Germany. A new twitter account monitors delays on both sides of the Gibraltar-Spain frontier.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: quiet this morning, 60mins delay mid-afternoon then two hours in the late evening…

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WEEKEND TRAFFIC: CHALLENGING

Brace yourself for the first big weekend getaway.

It has started: D1090 outbound Grenoble last weekend. Photo @DriveEurope.

France has already broken up for the school holidays but it hasn’t started on the big dash south. That’s next month. This weekend will be busier than usual, particularly on the roads from Paris to the coasts, especially on Saturday. Major jams are not expected but as schools in the southern Netherlands break up tomorrow expect a lot of Dutch cars on the roads.

Sunday will be quiet but Monday (14 July) being a national holiday – Bastille Day – will see many long weekenders heading home in the afternoon.

Adding somewhat to the traffic will be the Tour de France which spends the weekend in east France, Epernay, Nancy and Mulhouse.

It’s best you have the German prediction straight. With schools-out in the north and east, this weekend – according to the ADAC – ‘The joy of the most wonderful time of the year is thoroughly spoiled for car travellers. The jams now cover the whole country. Moreover, countless car holidaymakers from Scandinavia will be frolicking on Germany‘s highways. Even if the highways are particularly strained in the north, it doesn’t look much better in the south.’

The upsides are that tomorrow is the last of the amber days – every other Friday until 15 August is red – and that Sunday will be quieter.

On Saturday Austria is expecting ‘very heavy traffic’ too with particular emphasis on the cross border B179 Fernpass, A10 Salzburg-St Michael im Lungau, A12 to Innsbruck, A13 Brenner Innsbruck-Italy, A1 and A2 in and out of Vienna, plus around the other big urban centres.

Domestic traffic should be light though, the last of the kids went on holiday last weekend.

Switzerland will also be busy with traffic heading south Friday and Saturday and north Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is a black day with the rush starting 18:00 Friday and, apart from overnight obviously, only tailing off the next evening.

The A2 Gotthard Tunnel will see delays of up to two hours, possibly more. The good news is that the road works on the easy, scenic Gotthard Pass (exit Wassen/Goschenen or Airolo) will be suspended every weekend until September. Other hotspots will be the A2 down to the Italian border at Chiasso and the road works A1/A2 Harkingen-Wiggertal south of Basel.

Since most holidaymakers will have booked ahead, the weather is unlikely to make the same difference as it would at other times. For the record, however, temperatures are expected to be in the mid to late twenties all over Europe though there will be some rain around too.

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A new twitter account – @GibraltarBorder – keeps drivers up-to-date with delays on both sides of the Spain-Gibraltar frontier. Previous sources @RGPolice and frontierqueue.gi could only give the delays on the Gibraltar side though both are still available. The new account is run by the Gibraltar Borders Agency and tweets several times an hour, with photos.

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NEWS: A strike could mean delays at all UK Passport Controls tomorrow. Mercedes’ swish new campervan goes on sale at the end of the month. Finland’s proposed pay-as-you go road tolls should also apply to foreign vehicles say MPs. A border strike in Greece sees long truck queues in Macedonia, plus the Shipka Pass Tunnel should be built by 2020 to complete a direct route between Bucharest and the Aegean.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: maximum 30min delay at lunchtime.

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BORDER FORCE STRIKE

Contingencies in place but expect delays at Passport Control tomorrow.

Passengers at all UK ports should be prepared for delays at Border Force controls tomorrow (Thursday 10 July).

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is holding a national day of action, along with several other unions, over a pay claim.

A spokesman for the PCS told @DriveEurope today that the organisation had members at all ports (and airports) and that there could ‘potentially be disruption at all of them’.

The strike is not expected to lead to any cancelled departures. A spokesperson for the Home Office told @DriveEurope, ‘Border Force has tried and tested contingency plans in place for managing industrial action. There will inevitably be some delays but we hope to keep any disruption to the travelling public to a minimum.’

Earlier this week, LDLines warned passengers travelling to and from Portsmouth and Newhaven to, ‘Please arrive at check-in as soon as possible as controls will be covered by trained volunteers and you may have to wait longer than usual to pass through the PCP [passport control].’

The disruption could start as early as this evening and last until Friday morning.

We will monitor the situation and post updates here and at @DriveEurope on Twitter.

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If we were going to have a campervan it would probably be this one: the new Mercedes-Benz Marco Polo. Based on the V-Class, it has electric everything – including bed (two doubles) and roof – teak floor, flush glass-topped kitchen units, matching integral outside table and chairs but no shower, or toilet unfortunately. The most powerful engine is a 2.2 litre turbodiesel, 136g/km 190bhp. Available with the usual raft of Mercedes driver assist and safety features. On sale in Germany from 29 July. Prices TBA.

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roundup: FINLAND. Parliamentarians are further advancing the possibility of pay-as-you go road tolls which would also apply to foreign vehicles according to YLE. The transport committee proposal follows an independent report earlier this year recommending a GPS-based scheme. There’s no news yet on the transport ministry tender for IT companies to build the app-based infrastructure, also including other driving services. MACEDONIA-GREECE. A 24 hour strike by Greek border guards has led to long truck queues at the Bogorodica, Dorjan and Medzitlia crossing points though cars and buses are being let through. BULGARIA. Design contracts have been inked for the Shipka Tunnel, part of the Grabovo Bypass project in central Bulgaria, underneath the Shipka Pass, site of famous 19^th century battles which saw the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. When complete in 2020, the tunnel will complete a fast north-south direct route between Bucharest and Alexandroupoli on the Greek Aegean coast. Meanwhile, restrictions are in place on two bridges in Pleven on the main road to Sofia.

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NEWS: The European Commission does not share other’s certainty that the German ‘foreigner vignette’ is discriminatory. Meanwhile, campaigns in neighbouring countries are stepping up.

Also, the European Commission launches an easy-to-use app of all the road rules around Europe. Fuel contamination caused a mass breakdown in Luxembourg at the weekend. Romania’s Transalpina road may not open this year.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: no delays all day then slowly building to 1h15 mid-afternoon.

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EU LOOKS KINDLY ON GERMAN ‘FOREIGNER VIGNETTE’

Commission not sure tramp stamp is discriminatory.

Alexander Dobrindt spells out the details of the German ‘foreigner vignette’. Photo via bmvi.de

Many observers are convinced the German foreigner vignette is discriminatory in principle, and thus against European law, but the European Commission says it ‘needs to see the details’.

Transport minister Alexander Dobrindt yesterday spelt out his plans for the foreigner vignette at a news conference in Berlin.

It starts in 2016, applies to all vehicles up to 3.5t – possibly even motorbikes – and to all public roads, not just the national network as thought previously. It will cost €10 for ten days or €20 for two months. An annual vignette sticker will be also be available at a price depending on the ‘characteristics of the vehicle’ (expected to be around €100 on average). The sticker will be sold over the internet and probably also petrol stations.

Many commentators, including the FIA, said immediately the vignette was discriminatory because it will not be paid directly by German motorists (who will have their vehicle taxes reduced to compensate). But this reckons without the similar UK Foreign Truck Levy introduced successfully this year, and without the series of meetings Dobrindt has held with the European Commission.

In a statement, transport commissioner Siim Kallas said, ‘We see many positive elements in the concepts outlined by the Minister today, but until all the details are known and discussed there can be no green or red light from Brussels. Now it’s time to sit down and hammer out the detail…

[Vignettes] should not be directly aimed at discriminating of foreign drivers. Everybody should pay a fair share for using and maintaining roads. The Minister appears to try to take this into account, but we would need to see the details.’

Meanwhile, both the Danish and Dutch FIA-affiliated ANWB motoring clubs have set up campaign groups against the vignette while the Austrian transport minister also reiterated yesterday that the move would face legal action.

UPDATE 12:30: The Dutch ANWB motoring club has already collected over 10,000 signatures against the German toll plan while, according to a report in thelocal.dk, the Danish government (and other political parties), are currently considering a suitable response, even a foreigner toll of their own. Meanwhile, however, the UK’s AA seems entirely unaware of the issue. A spokesman told @DriveEurope this lunchtime, ‘It’s not something that has darkened our doorstep yet.’

UPDATE 9 July, 14:00: the Dutch petition has now been signed by over 17,300 drivers. We also asked the UK’s RAC for a comment but have yet to hear back.

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A new, free app of all the car and truck road rules around Europe has been launched today by the European Commission. Called ‘Going Abroad’ it’s available for the main app stores for smartphones, tablets and computers. As an easy to access, quick reference for things like speed limits it’s hard to see how it could be bettered especially considering all the info comes from an authoritative source. If anything goes wrong just blame the EU.

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roundup: LUXEMBOURG. Water contamination was to blame for a spate of simultaneous breakdowns on the A6 motorway on Sunday. Nine drivers had just filled up at the Q8 services at Capellen to the west of Luxembourg City when their engines died. Water had seeped into the underground tanks. Q8 says the problem is now solved. Meanwhile a tanker driver had 500 litres of diesel stolen overnight from Aire de Berchem on the A3. ROMANIA. It’s nearby (lower) colleague Transfagarasan may have opened already but the local and national roads authorities are still arguing over whether to open the Transalpina high altitude road this year. Work is unfinished following a financial scandal rendering the 2145m DN67C dangerous in places.

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NEWS: Eurotunnel advises passengers to postpone journeys today as tech trouble strikes. Dover ferry operators earlier warned of a busy day ahead, and for passengers to leave plenty of time to check-in, but Port of Dover subsequently says it is ‘working to maximise capacity today’. See more here. Meanwhile, passengers are advised to use the M2 and A2 roads to Dover to avoid building queues at the Eurotunnel turnoff on the M20, and at the A20/M20 Aycliffe roundabout in Dover.

TODAY: how much does it cost to cross the Channel at the last minute? After last week’s trip we have some fresh figures. Plus, coming up, Madrid introduces higher parking fees for ‘gas guzzling’ cars, Dutch truckers hold more motorway protests and Transfagarasan opens for the summer.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: no delays all day.

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LAST MINUTE CHANNEL CROSSINGS: HOW MUCH?

‘All services are on schedule with space available’ is the best phrase in cross-Channel travel, but how much does it cost to just chuck your stuff in the car when the sun shines and set off?

After many ad hoc trips, including a couple last week, we provide some up-to-date figures.

A good day to cross the Channel? Not too bad as it turns out.

The idea is always to roll out of bed when we wake up – whenever that might be – chuck the stuff in the car and set off for the Channel when we feel like it.

It’s so uncivilised to start a holiday by getting up in the early hours, and/or working to – somebody else’s – unbending timetable; tiring and stressful from the off.

But with an industry which lives by the tedious mantra ‘the earlier you book the cheaper the fares!’ this last minute approach is clearly going to cost, and not just for decadent slobs like us but also for anybody who just fancies a few days away when the sun shines. But how much?

Another of our traditions is the Olympic breakfast on board one of the Dover-Calais ferries. However, what with one thing and another last week, if we were going to enjoy the lazy afternoon’s motoring through eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg we’d been looking forward to, it would have to be Eurotunnel this time.

Having been clobbered with a £159 one-way fare for a similar trip in April we took the unusual step, for us, of booking – or attempting to book – ahead. The fare was still £159. Ouch!

Still, at least it’s honestly outrageous. Book to travel on the day of departure with our monopoly undersea operator and it costs the same whether you just turn up at the check in booth unannounced, or scrabble with a smartphone in the car on the way down. Weirdly, that’s reassuring.

Coming back we had the luxury of more time and could afford to catch the ferry. DFDS kindly forwarded its brand new YourShipMate app which very handily cobbles together all the useful info on its services, from the port locations to check in times and timetables plus a booking facility. It also lists the departures in order so you can easily mix and match between the nearby Dover-Calais or Dunkirk routes.

Speeding up the A31 from Dijon we were quoted £86 from Calais which compares well to the £115 we paid after turning up at Dunkirk last May (in our experience it is cheaper to book ferries ahead, even on the same day). Unfortunately we couldn’t make the DFDS boat so it was all hands on deck to catch the 16:05 P&O Calais sailing.

It wasn’t a huge shock then to be charged £115, to the point we decided to treat ourselves to the Club Class upgrade for an all-in price of £137. Thank God we did. Normally we travel just out of season so were completely unprepared for the ‘carnage’ – in the words of the Club Class steward – downstairs. It was all fairly good natured but the poor women in the duty free shop stood with their backs to the displays and arms splayed as the flip-flopped hordes came at them in waves.

As it was we sat in a quiet lounge, on Mies van der Rohe tan leather Barcelona chairs – if real at €7k a pop – reading the complimentary papers and drinking the complimentary drinks, eating made-to-order, waitress-served BLTs for a fiver, feeling lucky to be on board at all.

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News catch up: Romania’s premier high altitude road DN7C Transfagarasan opened last Monday (1 July) for the summer and will not close this year until 31 October says Romania-insider.com. DN7C runs from Curtea de Arges to near Sibiu in central Romania. The section at the top however shuts overnight, from 21:00-07:00. Photo via Wikipedia.

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TODAY: explaining the various reasons why we didn’t achieve our target of tackling 150 Alpine Passes in Ten Days…

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: 15min delay late morning otherwise clear today.

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MOUNTAIN PASS FAIL

Only around 70 out of 150 passes completed during ‘Tall Order’ trip…

L93 Faschinajoch runs a winding 19 miles vaguely north-south between Bludenz and Damuls in the Bregenz Forest Mountains – part of the Northern Limestone Alps – in the northern part of westernmost Austria (Vorarlberg), to the east of Lake Constance (Bodensee).

Where did it all go wrong? Faschinajoch.

This trip was about filling in the – large – gaps in our Alpine repertoire, but also about checking out lesser known mountain roads. Hence, after a day spent mopping up the easy passes around southern Germany, we hopped on the obscure Faschinajoch as a short cut back to base in Bregenz, western Austria.

As they so often do not, the bald statistics – maximum 14% gradient, topping out at 1486m – do not tell the whole story. Comparatively, that’s medium difficulty on both counts. It doesn’t even close for the winter. But the stats reckon without the pass starting not far off sea level – as opposed to somewhere already high up in the mountains – the narrow, bumpy track and the almost complete absence of safety barriers.

It went on and on and on, higher and higher and higher, the sheer drop into the valley below becoming ever more apparent as we rose above the surrounding peaks. Locals buzzing around demanding to be let through didn’t help, neither did the fading light or descending cloud.

To make matters even worse, this was day one of a ten day trip completely devoted to driving mountain roads. Personally, I didn’t get a good night’s sleep after that.

On the other hand, as is also so often the case, Faschinajoch was much easier on the way down. Mountain roads are all different obviously but they do split into several rough categories: vertical hairpins or gentle valley ascents on both sides, or – most often – a gentle valley ascent on one side and hairpins down the other (it’s certainly the case that to truly know a pass you have to drive it in both directions).

Faschinajoch is more in the first category but it’s definitely easier from the north. If you ever want to go skiing at the Schneereich resort at the top and don’t like heights, remember that.

Strictly speaking Faschinajoch connects the Bregenz Forest Valley in Damuels to the north with the Lutz River, Great Walser Valley in Faschina in the south. It skirts the highest peak in the Bregenz Forest Mountains – Glatthorn, 2133m – to the east.

There is a happy ending to this story. By sheer will, determination – and not taking eyes off the road – we did manage to drive at least another seventy passes after that (final total still pending). We’ll go through them one by one in due course and update our PassFinder page accordingly.

While we did avoid some classics – or at least ‘not manage to work them into the schedule’ – including Stelvio, Forcola di Livigno, Gavia and Umbrail, and the big four east of the A10 in Austria, we did steel ourselves to tackle some major passes, among them ‘The Loop’ from Andermatt in Switzerland (Gotthard, Nufenen, Grimsel, Sustenen and Furka), Silvretta and Grossglockner in Austria and Sella, Falzarego and Fedaia in the Dolomites.

Rather than a tale of derring, death-defying doo in the Alps we’re better placed to write The Neurotic’s Guide to Mountain Driving though, despite a few dodgy moments here and there, we managed to conquer our fears – one of us better than the other – and, ultimately, both had a great time doing so (especially in retrospect).

Our target of 150 Passes in Ten Days was missed as much because we ran out of time as courage though we do now have a better grip on the logistics (more on this soon).

Having pretty much covered Austria, eastern and central Switzerland and northern Italy, the mainly remaining Alps passes are those in France. They are the really big ones: Col de l’Iseran (12%, 2770m), Galibier (12%, 2645m) and La Bonette/Restefond (12%, 2678m). But we’ll have to wait until next year to drive those, or maybe the one after.

We headed six miles east on the rest of L93, the Damuels-Au road (14%, 1428m), to the B200 back to Dornbirn/Bregenz. Due west from Damuls however is L51, Austria’s own Furkajoch (14%, 1761m) running 20 miles to the A14 north of Feldkirch. East from Au on the B200 is Hochtannberg (14%, 1675m) then south on B198 through Lech is Flex Pass (10%, 1784m).

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L193 FASCHINAJOCH:

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NEWS: During a demonstration of an autopilot concept, Mercedes Benz says the new system will mean better jobs for truck drivers. Photo: car manufacturers spotted on test in the Alps. Today is the first day of the German summer truck driving ban.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: 20min queue early afternoon otherwise no delays today.

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AUTOTRUCKS MEAN BETTER JOBS FOR DRIVERS SAYS MERCEDES

Highway Pilot frees drivers for other tasks

Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, member of Daimler’s Board of Management and responsible for Daimler Trucks and Buses, uses a tablet computer behind the wheel of Future Truck 2025.

With 75% of all freight still expected to be transported by road in 2025, and volumes increased by 20% since 2008, the heavy haulage sector will boom over the next decade.

The long-standing shortage of skilled drivers and ever increasing pressure over safety and emissions will see autonomous driving play an increasing role. Happily, unlike in other industries, this new technology will not lead to wholesale job losses says Mercedes Benz.

The manufacturer demonstrated its new Highway Pilot in a ‘completely realistic’ scenario on the A14 near Magdeburg on Thursday. Using a modified Actros, dubbed ‘Future Truck 2025’, the German maker showed how the vehicle could respond to fast flowing traffic without intervention from the driver, even to the point of moving aside for an emergency vehicle.

However, FT2025 still retains a steering a wheel and needs the driver to start off, and enter the flow of traffic.

In a statement the company said, ‘The Highway Pilot system will significantly upgrade the job profile of truck drivers. It will not only free them from having to perform monotonous tasks it will also give them more time for tasks that were previously handled by office workers at shipping companies. In other words, it will be possible for truckers to advance to new positions as transport managers, making truck driving a more attractive profession. Autonomous driving could thus help to resolve the shortage of truck drivers.’

With appropriate legislation changes the company says the system could enter service by 2025.

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Spy photographers should abandon the Arctic Circle and the Nurburgring in favour of the Alps. Last week we saw a fully burqa’d mid-size SUV at the bottom of Grossglockner in Austria, plus a few Skoda estates on towing duty. Then Hyundai – we think – had a whole squad of ‘test wagen’ on the Furka Pass in Switzerland, again mainly with a trailer. We didn’t see any Ferraris or McLarens though… UPDATE: it turns out to be Hyundai sister company Kia testing on Furka. The disguised new Sedona SUV featured in many magazines the following week. Still not sure what car it is above.

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roundup: GERMANY. For the first time, today – Saturday 5 July – is included in the summer truck ban. All vehicles 7.5t+ cannot use autobahns and some busy main roads from 07:00-20:00 on all Saturdays throughout July and August. Fine €150. Also see details of truck bans in AUSTRIA and ITALY.

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TODAY: Trip planning in the Alps, trying to include all the major mountain passes in one straightforward route… Aston Martin stars at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. First details of the new, improved French Ecotaxe system emerge.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: no queues all day then up to 45min in the mid-evening.

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TRIP PLANNING: A TALL ORDER

150 mountain passes in 10 days.

@DriveEurope on Falzarego, Dolomites, September 2011. Not by 911 this time though. UPDATE: this road is not Falzarego! It’s the much more sedate Campolongo, it turns out.

Over 150 named, major passes in an arc of mountains around 750 miles long and up to 120 miles wide isn’t going to be easy cover in ten days.

Discerning the most efficient route through that lot is far beyond us. Instead we’ve selected four bases around which the most important roads are clustered.

They are Briancon, Andermatt, Bormio and Tamsweg, we think.

True to form this trip isn’t as well planned as it might be (beyond plotting all 153 roads on our PassFinder). The added complications are that we are both terrified of heights and have an equally strong aversion to crowded roads.

Having said that, we have driven a few mountain roads in our time, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, as well as free driving around the Pyrenees and the Croatian Dinaric Alps so we’re not completely averse.

The key is to start off gently hence we’re heading for the hills and squiggly roads of northern Luxembourg first. Hopefully after a day or two on relatively tame switchbacks we’ll be thirsting for more.

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Is Aston Martin about to do it again? After a strong showing at last week’s Le Mans 24 Hours, the factory cars are making a decent fist of this weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours too. At the time of writing the GTE car is in sixth place after qualifying 21st while the three other entries are all in podium positions in their respective classes. UPDATE: the GTE car finished fifth overall while in the three other classes the Astons took two seconds and a third. Almost most important, the company maintained its 100% finish record at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Superb.

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FRANCE. Ahead of an announcement this week, the first details of the revamped Ecotaxe truck toll system have been leaked to a French newspaper. The tolls were postponed after widespread protests. It’s now called ‘transit truck toll’, a GPS-based system applying to 4,000km of national roads (compared to 15,000km previously) and all vehicles 3.5t+. It starts on 1 January 2015 at a rate, we’ve heard subsequently, of 0.13c per km.

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TODAY: Will ferry – and Eurotunnel – fares soar next year after new anti-pollution rules?

NEWS: Spain takes exception to France’s upcoming tightening of driver’s weekly rest regulations. Bosnia still recovering after recent flood disaster. Polish researchers work on remote alcohol testing.

NOTE: Italian filling stations possibly cash only for the next week.

GIBRALTAR FRONTIER WATCH: delays of up to 1h25 late morning but quiet before and since.

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ALL CROSS-CHANNEL FARES SET TO SOAR

Ferries and Eurotunnel to increase prices next year due to new fuel regulations.

Beautiful ships, ugly emissions. New pollution rules will decimate the industry and see fares soar say the operators. Photo @DriveEurope, Igoumenitsa, Greece.

Is the ferry industry – and its passengers – about to fall victim to ‘cry wolf’ syndrome?

Perhaps nobody listens to dire corporate warnings any more after all the fuss over the minimum wage dissipated into record employment.

Nevertheless, for the last few years operators have been saying that new low-sulphur fuel – due to become mandatory within the EU on 1 January 2015 – will lead to higher ferry fares, cancelled routes, massive job losses, thousands more trucks on the roads and, as a consequence, millions of tonnes of extra emissions.

DFDS has already announced the end of its Harwich-Esbjerg ferry – the last UK-Scandinavia route – in part due to the new fuel regs.

According to the UK Chamber of Shipping the new fuel will see costs rise by 30%.

At one point the British government sounded quite sympathetic. It told the Transport Select Committee in 2012 it supported the looser sulphur limits negotiated through the International Maritime Organisation. Since then its stance has softened. In a parliamentary debate this week, shipping minister Stephen Hammond told MPs, ‘It is not an action that has happened today, yesterday or even last year, it is something the shipping industry has had over six years to get its head around.’

The problem is that ships’ fuel – bunker oil, ‘Crud Oil’ – really is vile stuff, barely removed from tar. You might have thought the operators would have weaned themselves away from it out of a sense of social responsibility. Instead the message is that the European shipping industry is not viable without it.

The sting in the tail is that passengers who use Eurotunnel will also see fares rise. Spokesman John O’Keefe told the Dover Express earlier this month, ‘The whole purpose of the tunnel is as a premium service offering speed, so it is priced at a premium. If the ferries push prices up, our prices will be pushed up too.’

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roundup: BOSNIA. The Brcko crossing is still closed for traffic while loaded vehicles are still prohibited at Bosanski-Samac following the recent flooding. Yesterday saw hour-long queues at Doljani. See a roundup of current traffic conditions here. SPAIN. Hauliers will complain to the European Commission about new weekly rest rules in France. It had been reported that from 1 June drivers were unable to take extended weekly rest inside vehicles. It now emerges the regulation is still under consideration. POLAND. A research trio from Warsaw’s Military University of Technology have completed second stage tests on a remote, laser device that measures alcohol vapour in car cabins, down to 0.1g/l. The roadside applications are obvious. Nearby law enforcement would be notified for further investigations. The device now moves to the prototype stage.

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